Free agency begins on Thursday, March 9, giving the two sides a little over a week to finalize an extension before any team is free to sign Lacy.

Green Bay’s been hot and cold with Lacy lately

The news of the Packers desiring for Lacy to return isn’t shocking, but the words seem to go against the actions Green Bay has taken in the weeks and months leading up to free agency.

In December 2015 with the Packers marred in an offensive slump, Green Bay benched Lacy for a divisional contest on the road against Detroit and cut reserve running back Alonzo Harris after both missed curfew.

It was the first reported incident of the Packers being disappointed in Lacy’s actions. Weeks after the Detroit incident, head coach Mike McCarthy tersely told reporters that Lacy’s “got a lot of work to do” in his first public comments about the running back’s weight. McCarthy reportedly fined Lacy repeatedly for failing to make weight throughout the last two years.

McCarthy spoke positively, however, after the season ended about Lacy’s future. "I'd love to see Eddie back," McCarthy said. "Eddie is going through a medical situation. I clearly understand his contract situation, so that's really something we'll continue to work through."

Greater insight into Lacy’s injury

“I messed up my deltoid and widened the bone on my ankle, so I had to get two screws, two wires and a plate to fix it because I messed up my deltoid ligament,” Lacy told Schefter. “That’s the longest thing to heal.”

Lacy revealed the doctor that performed the surgery, Dr. Robert Anderson of Charlotte, North Carolina, is expected to begin working alongside the Packers' current team physician, Dr. Pat McKenzie, for Bellin Health.

Dr. McKenzie has held the role of team physician for over 20 years, and his opinion on injuries goes far to inform general manager Ted Thompson and the Packers front office. Dr. Anderson's upcoming change of employment could, at the very least, mean Green Bay may have some additional insight into Lacy's surgery and recovery.

Just one week ago, Lacy posted a video of him running underwater while training at the University of Alabama facilities.

Lacy’s been a valuable member of the Packers

Lacy, drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, has struggled with conditioning and injuries in the past two seasons. He has been quite productive when healthy over the past two seasons, weight notwithstanding.

We wrote in January that over his past 16 games (including playoffs), Lacy has accumulated 1,010 yards and three touchdowns on 215 carries, a per carry average of 4.69 yards. That’s roughly in line with what the Packers got from him in 2014, his best season in Green Bay.

The bruising running back certainly has a different skillset than Ty Montgomery. Montgomery leads all Packers rushers in yards per carry out of shotgun, a formation the Packers ran early and often last season.

During his rookie campaign, he steadied the Packers offense as the team’s first 1,000 yard rusher in four years after Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone and missed most of eight games.